Video: At Packed “In-Abstentia Town Hall” in Henrico County, Residents Blast Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01), Conclude “The train has left the station. We need to vote him out. We need to find a new representative.”

See below for video and highlights from today’s superb “in-absentia town hall” in Glen Allen (Henrico County), with Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01)…missing in action, of course. Because that’s how Wittman rolls. Great work by everyone involved in organizing this, everyone who showed up and everyone who spoke up – very impressive! (that of course includes the Henrico County Democrats, who among other things video recorded it all!)

As for Rep. Rob Wittman, see below for just a few links to give you an idea of what he’s all about – and why, as multiple speakers pointed out, he needs to be VOTED OUT OF OFFICE at the next possible opportunity, namely in November 2026! And for those who don’t think that’s possible, because Wittman’s been there so long, note that the DCCC has announced that VA01 is one of its targeted seats for 2026, so it’s definitely competitive, particularly in a “blue wave” election, as 2026 certainly could be (assuming we have free-and-fair elections, obviously).

• Virginia’s Four Republican Members of Congress All Get “F/Very Poor” Ratings On New “GOP Democracy Report Card” (Rob Wittman got an “F”)
• Over 1K Civic Leaders, Activists Demand That Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01) Resign (“Outrage grows after Wittman sought to disenfranchise millions of voters”)
• Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01) Gets Absolutely *Ripped* on His Facebook Page For Voting Against Impeaching Trump (“Today was an opportunity for us to see who is on team sedition and who is on team democracy. You showed us.”)
• Several VA01 Dem Committees Request That Speaker Pelosi Move to Expel Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01) For His “repeated actions in furtherance of the overthrow of the lawful government of the United States”

With that, see below for video and a few highlights from today’s “in-absentia town hall” in Henrico County, including comments left on the Henrico Democrats’ Facebook page.

• “[Wittman]’s literally right around the corner from you guys at Northstar Academy at a ribbon cutting ceremony. Near twin Hickory. You guys should march over there and let him hear your concerns.”
• “A ribbon cutting ceremony for a private school in an affluent area is more important than attending a town hall. That tracks.”
• “Hi, my name is Sarah Collins, and I am one of your constituents in Henrico. I had to leave the town hall early because I brought my 18-month-old, and it was well past nap time. I have two points I want to raise. First, your stance on gun violence and gun safety is reprehensible. I dread the day I have to send my child to kindergarten because school safety in this country is abysmal. You seem to care more about protecting the right to bear arms than about protecting my child’s right to live. You should be crystal clear with your constituents that this is the stance you take when you align yourself with groups like the NRA. Second, in addition to the important points raised by others at the town hall, I want to express my deep disappointment with your response to my letter regarding the protection of SNAP benefits. I hold a PhD in health policy, and I am a registered dietitian whose research focuses on food insecurity. You told me that you believed stricter eligibility standards and oversight would help ensure the “right” people receive benefits. I would be happy to send you a literature review, since it appears you are not well-versed in the research on this topic. Despite your degree in public health, it is important to remember that stricter eligibility requirements consistently lead to decreased participation, increased food insecurity, and no measurable improvements in employment outcomes. I would be glad to provide peer-reviewed sources for you and your staff if you would like to learn more.”
• “Rep. Rob Wittman we will remember you and vote you out in 2026″
• “Of course he’s absent. They can’t run from Project 2025”
• “We the people will fight to defend our constitution. We the people will fight for the checks and balances that the separation of powers is supposed to provide. The question is with Mr. Wittman, will you be fighting with us or against us?”
• “Let’s talk about climate. Something Congressman Wittman should understand is an avid fisherman who’s watched and I guess ignored rising sea levels eat away at his district’s coastline, it’s hotter here than it used to be. It’s a lot more humid here than it used to be. The droughts are getting longer. And when it does storm, the amount of rain that should fall in a month falls in a day. Everyone’s allergies are getting worse. Mosquito season is endless. And sea level is rising on our state’s coastline faster than almost anywhere in the United States. But despite being this avid outdoorsman who claims to care about conservation, and this is a direct quote from his Earth Day post – and I have to keep quoting from his Instagram because he’s not here he  – ensuring future generations can enjoy the beauty of our first district. Time and time again, Rob Wittman has voted to defund cost-saving clean energy research and development… Because of these cuts to funding, our national parks are going to be underststaffed and underserviced. Make it make economic sense. I’m not quite sure how Rob Wittman is ensuring future generations can experience all Virginia has to offer while voting to cut everything that will preserve and protect these spaces.”
• “Gun violence kills over 40,000 Americans a year. And Rob Wittman as you saw from his rating has voted against even modest bipartisan gun violence prevention legislation…This is a man with an advanced degree in public health who refuses to treat gun deaths like the public health crisis that they are.”
• “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim to be a former scientist and vote to defund science. You can’t claim to care about health while slashing the nation’s health infrastructure. You cannot claim to love the outdoors while enabling the destruction of the environment.”
• “What have you been doing, Representative Wittman, to slow the development of tyranny in our country? I’m sure you love this country as we all do. But what are you doing? And some examples of tyranny that are taking place now are taking people off the streets who are lawful immigrants and also who are US citizens. Another example is intimidating judges to those who are not loyal to him and who do not follow his executive orders. And a third example is pardons for those who committed violent and nonviolent crimes including officers.
• “What I wanted to first say is express my disappointment that our representative couldn’t make it today. And I might add cowardly…He is our elected official. His role is to represent us, not represent his interests, but to represent us collectively.”
• “So I think he needs to stand up and and make a statement when the administration is acting either unconstitutionally or unlawfully that he may not control it directly, but he has a right by representing us to say what is true and what isn’t true.”
• “I would like to remind you what happened almost 250 years ago when we had our revolution against England and the constitution was developed. And in the constitution it recognizes three separate branches of the government – the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The executive – well, okay, we know what’s going on with that. The judicial is holding strong right now. And the legislative, which you are a part of, is falling down on the job.”
• “If Congressman Wittman were here today, I would remind him that his title is representative, and he can’t represent his people if he isn’t willing to show up and hear what we have to say. But one of the things I’d like to ask him is as a sitting member of the US House Armed Services Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the budget and operations of the Department of Defense – why do Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth and others still have their jobs? Members of the military know that if they had behaved in the way that these people have, that they would be fired or they would be charged.”
• “It seems we’re not so much the land of the free as we’re moving more towards a failed police state in Germany, who we went to war with in the 1940s So my question for Representative Wittman is, would you support changing the motto of the Trump administration to make America Gestapo again?”
• “We the people will fight to defend our constitution. We the people will fight for the checks and balances that the separation of powers is supposed to provide. The question is with Mr. Wittman, will you be fighting with us or against us?”
• “Congressman Wittman, what is it for example of DEI are you against? Equity? Are you against fairness? Are you against justice? Say something, not just we don’t like DEI.”
• “We are all asking about Rob Wittman’s stance on this or stance on that, or what is what is his true character, what does he really believe in. He’s not some new spring chicken to being a legislator. He has been around. We know what he stands for. We know what his principles are and what his values are…And I think what these events are expressing is our impatience and also our fury honestly, at being taken for fools as if somehow we can be told one thing and he can act another way…I’m cynical; I don’t believe that he is going to move in a certain direction. I believe that he is making a risk calculation with every stance he takes that subservience to the supreme leader, to the party, to whatever base he believes that he is serving supersedes any principle or duty to the constitution or to his constituents who are here today. And the remedy for that is to vote him out of office. That’s really all I wanted to say, is that this collective action is an expression of our dissatisfaction. The time is up for trying to nudge him a step this way, can you vote that way can you protect us in this way. The train has left the station. We need to vote him out. We need to find a new representative.”
• “I think that Rob Wittman is, not to put too fine a point on it, is pooping his pants because he understands that Henrico knows how to organize. When Henrico gets together, does our thing this year, we’re going to send a signal not just to Virginia but to the rest of the country. Because what happens in Henrico happens in Virginia inevitably the next year, where the canary down the mine it shows and sends a signal to the rest of the country about what’s coming next.”

So that’s just a short sampling of the remarks earlier today. Again, great job everybody, let’s keep this up – and watch Trump’s disapproval ratings rise and rise, while 2026 shapes up as the year when we take back the US House, maybe even take back the US Senate, after of course sweeping Virginia in November 2025!